She became too emotional to continue. Then a lynx-eyed man, perhaps a visiting scholar, seized the microphone in the audience and shouted: "Compatriots and friends, to the vacillation of the U.S. foreign policy toward Taiwan we must say no!"
People applauded.
He boomed again, "To the Japanese anti-China activities we must say no!"
Again applause broke out.
"To the U.S. Congress's China-bashing we must say no!" More people clapped their hands.
"To American imperialism and hegemony we must say no!" Applause thundered again.
" To all those who are hostile to our Chinese nation we must say no!"
Some of the audience stood up applauding. Then the man spoke calmly as if clarifying his points. He told the audience, "Even as we say no, we must be rational and base our ideas and judgments on accurate information and facts. Otherwise we might make disastrous mistakes. While we blame others for being prejudiced and for double-dealing, we ought to prevent ourselves from getting too hotheaded." He was certain that the twenty-first century would belong to China, meaning that the country would grow into the number one world power, so the Chinese, he said, should be confident and mustn't follow American ways.
Nan was bewildered by this man's performance, wondering which side he was actually on. The man spoke like a seasoned official, manipulating the emotions of the audience, some of whom kept nodding approval.
Then a skinny woman in a coffee-colored woolen sweater took the microphone. She was wearing at her waist a small thermos made of stainless steel. Despite her new hairdo, Nan recognized her-Mei Hong. "I have to take issue with you notables on the panel," she said emphatically. "You say the authors are young, emotional, and ignorant. Do you know that being young is not necessarily being wrong? Napoleon started conquering Europe when he was a young man. You say they're too emotional. What can be accomplished without deep, sincere emotion? A few years ago I went to visit the Yuan Ming Park outside Beijing that was burned by the Eight-Power Allied Forces last century. Seeing those felled stone pillars and charred beams, I couldn't hold back my tears. My heart was aching and bleeding. How could I not be emotional? You say the authors are ignorant, but they plucked up courage to confront the American imperialists. Even if you have a great deal of knowledge and professional training, why haven't you done anything to expose the conspiracy against China? Why do you talk like running dogs employed by the U.S. government? Shame on you!"
A smattering of applause rippled across the audience. The three panelists looked astonished. The woman writer sighed, now shaking her head, now pinching the bridge of her nose.
Mei Hong continued, "The other day my daughter told me that a Korean boy in her class broke into tears because some students called him 'Chinese.' That made me remember that once a homeless bum had yelled 'Chinese' at me simply because I didn't respond to his panhandling. He didn't know my ethnicity for sure, but why did he call me that? And why did the Korean boy feel so humiliated by the word 'Chinese'? I did some research on this, and here, let me share my discovery with you." She pulled out a square of paper from her pants pocket, unfolded it, and went on to explain, "In English the suffix '-ese' suggests 'inferior, insignificant, weak, weird, and diminutive.' You all know what ' China ' means. It means 'hardened clay or dirt.' So combining the two parts together, 'Chinese' means 'tiny, petty, and odd stuff made of dirt or clay.' After looking up the verbal roots in The Oxford English Dictionary, I finally understood that 'Chinese' was a racial slur, originally used by the British imperialists to put down our people and break our spirit. Not only us, but also other races, such as Japanese and Vietnamese, as if we were all peewee peoples, lightweights. By comparison, the suffix '-an' designates people of 'superior' races, for example, Roman, American, and German. This discrepancy in naming different peoples means that racial prejudice is already coded in the English language. Germany produces sausages-why not call its people Sausagese? Italy is known for pizzas-why not call Italians Pizzese? England used to export woolen textiles-why not call the British Woolese? America yields a lot of corn-why not call the people here Cornese? Or the Swiss, Cheesese?" Many people hooted with laughter while Mei Hong looked around, her face taut and her chest heaving, as if she were a stern teacher in front of a noisy class.
As the audience quieted down some, she went on, "Obviously the English language is meant to discriminate against us and other colored races. Now I can see why so many people from our homeland call themselves Asians,' because they've intuitively sensed that words like 'Chinese,' 'Vietnamese,' and 'Japanese' were coined to diminish them. Therefore we, people from the ' Central Kingdom,' must refuse to be called Chinese, just like the blacks refuse to be called 'niggers.' "
Her tirade made her short of breath. She sat down, her cheeks red and puffy. The audience was puzzled, so most of them remained silent. A few were snickering.
Nan rose and took the microphone. He said, "I don't want to dispute the accuracy of Mei Hong's linguistic research, since I haven't touched the OED for ages. Let me just appeal to your common sense. We're all human beings and should be reasonable. The great poet
Czeslaw Milosz said, 'Human reason is beautiful and invincible,' so let us rely on nothing but our own intelligence. America didn't force us to come here, did it? China is our native land, while America is the land of our children-that's to say, a place of our future. If a war breaks out between China and the United States, how can any one of us here benefit from it?"
"What's your point? Out with it!" a female voice burst out from the back.
"My point is that we must stop stoking animosity and must remember that the authors of this mean book don't speak on our behalf. They're just hate-mongers. We have different interests from them because we don't live in China anymore. We mustn't follow them in railing against the United States blindly."
Mei Hong cried sharply, "That's outside the parameters of my subject."
Her overbearing tone of voice enraged Nan. He exploded, "You haven't returned my soup pot yet! You promised to do that five months ago-why haven't you kept your promise? I can never trust you again. You talk so much about national pride and honor, but why wouldn't you honor your own word? Why can't you be more decent as a human being?" To his surprise, his questions shut her up. Mei Hong dropped her eyes, her face dark. Several people cackled.
Then a young woman stood up and challenged Nan, "Are you a Chinese or not?"
" I was born in China and -"
"Give us a simple yes or no answer!"
"I'm going to be a U.S. citizen. I believe most of you will-"
"Get out of here, you shameless American!" shouted a male voice.
"Let him speak," a man interrupted. "I'm going to be a citizen too."
"Americans out! Americans out!" a few voices cried in unison.
" This is a free country and I have the right of free speech," Nan said.
"We don't want to listen to you." "Yes, get out of here!" "Let him finish." "Achoo!"
"Listen," Nan went on. "You people always talk about your nation, your China, as if every one of you were a kingpin of that country. Has it ever occurred to you that this obsession is dangerous? I mean to let a country dominate an individual's life and outweigh everything else. What's the definition of fascism? Do you know?"